Chapter 12

“And now, the bride will toss her bouquet. All those who are hoping to get married, please step forward!” There was a belief that the next wedding would belong to whoever caught Rit’s bouquet. “Here I go!” Rit had fun adding in a few feints before tossing the bouquet high into the air. “What? It’s coming down near us.” “Haha, looks like things are finally goin’ my way.” The bouquet was falling right toward Godwin and Frank. That would’ve been unlucky. “Hm? The wind’s picking up,” Yarandrala murmured, a quizzical expression on her face. The next moment… ““Whoaaaaa!!!”” Godwin and Frank were blown away, and black clouds descended from the skies. “Wh-what?!” Everyone froze in shock as a fairy leaped out of the black clouds and caught the bouquet in both hands. “Rit! Congratulations on your wedding!” “Lavender?!” It was Lavender, the archfay of calamity. “You should have told me if you were getting married!” “There was no way to contact you all the way on the other side of the continent…but you still came. I’m so happy!” “Of course I did! This is a new start toward your goals for love! Someday, Van and I will also…” The next moment, I heard people chattering. “Is everyone all right?” “That was rougher than a ship in a storm. My legs are still wobbly.” Those voices… The black cloud enveloping Lavender’s body dissipated to reveal… “Van! Esta! Albert! Cardinal Ljubo! King Salius and Lilinrala!!!” It was Van the Hero’s party and the two leaders from Veronia! “Lavender brought all of you?!” “Of course I did. A wedding is such a wonderful thing! So it should be celebrated by all your friends!” They’d traveled across the entire continent just to be here…? A warmth surged through my chest. “We couldn’t catch Danan, though. I have no clue where he went.” “He disappeared as soon as the war was over… We couldn’t even give him his reward.” Esta and Albert sounded disappointed. “That’s a shame… Danan already gave us a gift, though, so it’s fine.” “Danan did?” Esta and Ljubo both looked shocked. Danan had given us a handmade bell when he’d left Zoltan. He had explained that in his homeland, there was a custom of giving bells to children to ward off evil. How nostalgic. I hope we meet again someday. “It’s been a while. Congratulations on your wedding.” “King Salius. It is truly an honor. Thank you very much.” “You were my friend and benefactor even before I was king. There’s no need for you to be so formal with me.” Prince Salius was now the king of Veronia and a hero who had greatly contributed to the victory of the allied forces of humanity. It would be more appropriate to call him King Veronia, but he didn’t like such formalities and insisted on being called King Salius. “For your wedding to Rit, I would have liked to provide at least one of the kingdom’s treasures as a gift, but unfortunately, we departed quite suddenly.” “By that, he means we were dragged out of bed in the middle of the night,” said the high elf with a patch over one eye—Lilinrala—shaking her head. “It was lucky I had spare clothes in my item box, otherwise I’d be showing up at a wedding in nothing but my underwear.” King Salius and Lilinrala both laughed. This whole turn of events was on a scale normal people couldn’t really grasp. The people of Zoltan had moved away in surprise at the sudden storm, but when they recognized the newcomers as heroes who’d come to Zoltan before, they ran over happily. “Red!” Lavender glared at me. “You better come when Van and I get married, too!” “Yeah. I’ll come running, wherever in the world it is.” “You said it, so that’s a promise!” Lavender smiled. A pleasant chatter filled the surroundings at the sudden arrival of our new guests. “I’m so happy,” Rit said, coming up next to me. Yeah, it really is a joyful sight. There were so many people there celebrating our happiness. How could any goal be more splendid than this? “Rit.” “Hm?” “Let’s make each other happy.” “Yeah.” Rit nodded, her cheeks red as she thought about what I’d said. “Now then,” I said cheerfully, “where should we go for our honeymoon?” “Wh-what? I don’t know! You can’t ask me so suddenly like that!” True, that wasn’t really the sort of thing we should be deciding in the middle of our wedding. “In that case, I’ve got the perfect spot for you two!” Without delay, the people who’d overheard us started talking about interesting places they knew about. It was fun, noisy, and lively, and everyone around us couldn’t stop smiling. Nor could Rit and I.